SaturdayMickeyMouseRN: Hey AlyDreamBabeX: Hey grl!DreamBabeX: Wsp?MickeyMouseRN: nm u?DreamBabeX: same.MickeyMouseRN: howz ur mom?DreamBabeX: not so great. she's at least sleeping better now.MickeyMouseRN: i guess that's good. oh! guess what?DreamBabeX: yeah it's good. hey, i g2gMickeyMouseRN: ok. kiss yo mama for me and tell her to get better quick,cuz she's missing out on ice cream bouts.DreamBabeX: lol. i'll do that 4 you.MickeyMouseRN: u better. buh-bye. lylas!DreamBabeX: lylas 2DreamBabeX: c*ya l8erz!I logged off instant messenger and sighed. My best friend Mickey was theonly person I knew who had been told the whole truth of my mother.She knew that my mother didn't want to get better. She knew that my motherwasn't physically sick, just in her mind.I couldn't bring myself to tell anyone but Mickey the truth.Leaning back in the desk chair, I watched the phone. Mickey would becalling any moment. I hadn't let her say her "guess what" on IM. Shewouldn't be patient enough to wait three hours until we went out for ourweeky Saturday Night Out.Sure enough, the phone rang a few minutes later."Hey, Mickey!""Aly, you brat! You didn't let me finish my guess what!""Oh my Dog! How horrible! I don't suppose it could wait for dinner, couldit? By the way, where are we going tonight?""That new Greek place? What was it called... Biblos? Hey! Don't try tochange the subject. Guess what!""What?" I replied dutifully."My mom and dad have agreed that I can get my driver's license when I'm 16instead of 18!""God, Mickey! That could have waited until tonight, you know. In fact, itcould have waited a couple of years. I don't know if you remember, butuhh, you're only 14 right now?""Hey! I'll be 15 soon enough.""Yeah, you'll be 15 in seven months. That more than half a year! Andweren't we talking about being 16 to drive. So that adds another wholeyear...""Aly! Just enjoy the fact!""I am enjoying it, Mouse."She laughed. She always did when I called her Mouse. The nickname hadstarted a few years ago when we were babysitting some kids. They werewatching a Mickey Mouse movie, and Mickey stood up and did a perfectimitation of the Mouse's voice.The kids laughed and started calling her Mickey Mouse. At school, she andI referenced to her as Mickey or the Mouse.In one class, somone asked about it. Once she'd done her voice for them,well, everyone called her Mickey.The thing with calling her Mouse was that she was anything but. Mickey wasalmost 6-foot, with a loud booming voice and tiny ears.I, on the other hand, was only 5'6-and--1/2" with a normal volumed voice,and normal sized ears. We made such as great pair..."So anyway, Aly, I just wanted to make sure that we were still on fortonight...and to tell you about the license thing.""You know I would have told you if I was going to miss dinner. In theentire five year history of SNO, we have only canceled it three times.Once when I had strep throat, once when your parents made you go onvacation without me, and once when we were grounded for almost setting thechurch on fire. Tonight will not make a fourth."She was giggling."What, Mickey?""I almost forgot about the church," she gasped."The church! How could you forget! That was the best night ever, and theworst punishment ever!""I know! We weren't allowed to see each other for three weeks. Do yousuppose either of our parents know that we snuck out two of the Saturdaysso we wouldn't miss SNO?""I'm sure they do. It's been three years.""The church!!" she screamed and laughed."We were so mad when they put out our fire. We had taken, what, two hoursto start it.""Three hours! I can't believe we chose to camp out in the backyard of thatplace! I mean, there were hundreds of other places we could use as acampsite!""Wait as sec! I just remembered..." I cried, "We were in that littlepastor cemetery!""Enough, enough! We'll talk tonight!""Fine. See you at six. E-mail me as to where the heck this restaurantis.""Deal. I suppose you should know where we're going. Mail should be in byfive, depending when my brother gets off the computer.""Throw him off with your super-woman moves, sista.""Good idea! LYLAS!"She slammed the phone down, obviously excited at the idea of throwing herbrother with super-woman moves."Love ya like a sista too, Mickey." I replied to dead air. And I did. Inas sense, Mickey was my sister."Renea!" My mother was either awake or having nightmares. As far as Icould tell, the two actions were the same.Renea had been six-years-old when, three months ago, she was shot, raped,beaten, and left in a ditch in the middle of a cotton field. When mymother saw her baby... that's when she lost her sanity. My father lost hisheart.Wiping my eyes, I headed to check my e-mail.Mickey's directions were precise, as if she had walked from my house toBiblos, counting every step and every turn.Choosing what to wear to dinner, I hummed to keep out the sound of mymother's cries. The phone rang, a savior."Hello?""Hey Aly-x! Just wanted to tell you that you should wear that dark bluedress you got in Oregon. And the matching purse, no. Not that purse,something a little most sophisticated. Okay, and the black strappyplatforms.""Yes, yes. Go on. My hair?""Do your hair up, in that tucky thingy I showed you the other day.""Gibson tuck?""Yeah! That one! Shower before you come, and shave your legs because thatdress would look horrible if you forgot. Shave your armpits too, come tothink of it.""My turn. You will wear the light maroon spaghetti strap dress, with thelittle jacket. Then leave your hair down, with a headband. Your darkbrown heels will do for shoes.""Fine. You know I don't really like that color.""It accents your skin tone. You have naturally tan skin. I have palerskin than Snow White herself." That was a little bit of an exaggeration,but I was pale."Speaking of which, makeup. Adventure lipstick, with a little Willingnesson top. A dash of blush, the Vibrancy kind. And dark blue eye shadow tomatch your dress.""You are to wear Balance lipstick, with no blush, and just a wee wittow dabof eye shadow, the color that's shade darker than Balance?""Fine, fine. I'd better go get ready. so should you.""See you at six!"I headed upstairs to get dressed.Twelve minutes later, I dragged my bike out of the garage. Hitching mydress up to the work-out shorts underneath and pedaled to the restaurant.Mickey arrived at the same time as I did, she too on a bike with shortbeneath her dress."Aly-x." She nodded a hi, out of breath from her ride."Mouse." I was out of breath as well.Aly-x was her nickname for me. My full name was Alyxsa, because my parentcouldn't decide between Alexis and Alyssa. Mickey called me Aly-x as ajoke.Wordlessly but panting, we entered the restaurant. Boom! Welcome toGreece!The air was filled with flavorful scents that made my mouth water. Wechose a table on the back patio, with a view of the Lake Shwinp Lake.First we giggled over an appetizer, then laughed over the main course.We totally lost it over dessert.Our bill came and Mickey paid, asking me, "Have you been saving that moneyfor next Saturday? Have you even given thought as to where we're going?Remember it's your weekend next.""Yup. I know exactly where we'll go.""Really? Where? Please tell me!""It's going to be a surprise!"She pouted."Come on, Mouse, you'll love it, especially if you don't know where we'regoing.""It'd better be good.""Oh it will be." We were to our bikes now, "See you later, Mickey!""Bye, Miss Ultra-Mysterious Aly-x Woman."Still smiling, I pedaled back to home-not-so-sweet-home.Music floated out to the open windows, singing, "Oh yeah, life goes on longafter the thrill of living is gone."The words could have come from my mother's own mouth for the truth theheld.Hadn't I ever been her thrill of life, though?My father was waiting inside."Hello, Alyxsa. How was your night out?"So he had seen my note on the table."It was very nice actually. We went out for Greek food. I r--""That's nice. I wanted to know when your school gets out.""It is out. Yesterday was our last day. Why?""Everything is sealed now. It's a done deal.""What is? Roger, what are you talking about?" I always addressed myfather by his first name, since he wasn't much of a father anymore."I'm adopting a little girl. For your mother.""How old?""She's about eight years old or so.""What's she look like?""I haven't met her in person yet. I will tomorrow when I pick her up. Ihave pictures if you really want to see her.""That's okay. What's her name?""You'll meet her tomorrow and find out all this stuff from her. Okay? Goto bed now."I shook my head as I climbed the stairs. This was amazing for my father.He rarely was this thoughtful.Slipping off the single strap of my dress, I snuggled into my pajamas.SundayTomorrow could bring a change in my entire life. Tomorrow could bring thethrill back into my mother's life and she could enjoy living.The next morning, she arrived. My father brought her home around seven-thirty.She had straight blond hair, very unlike my mother's and my dark browncurls. Her eyes were scared and worried and almost black. Not vibrantgreen as Renea's and mine.She was thin though, like me. Her skin was almost the same tone as mine.When she saw me, a look of puzzlement came over her face."Hello. I'm Aly. You can call me Aly-x, like my best friend does, though. What's your name?"No response. My father cleared his throat loudly, causing her to jumptowards me."She hasn't said anything since I got her. She won't respond to the name Iwas told for her.""What name is that?"He paused for a moment, then boomed, "Sally."I raised an incredulous eyebrow at 'Sally'. The flowered sundress couldbelong on a Sally, but not that face. No, she wasn't a Sally. Definitelynot."Roger, why don't you let me talk with her while you go get her stuff.She'll be in the room right under mine, I've decided."He grunted and slipped out the front door."As I said before, I'm Aly-x. Now I think the agency my dad got you fromwas completely wrong. You must have had a nicer name, but they just calledyou Sally, isn't that right? Sally is a beautiful name, but you needsomething better."My father carried in a small suitcase and slammed the door with his foot.Sally jumped towards me.It was obvious that she was scared of loud noises, and very likely, of myfather too. I wondered what had made her so frightened."That's it, Alyxsa. You can take Sally to her room and help her unpack. Ihave some things to do."Leading Sally into the little room, I looked around for her boxes. Therewas nothing. All she had was the almost doll-sized suitcase.Opening it, I found a worn teddy bear, a tiny locket, and a sundressidentical to the one she already wore."We need to buy you some clothes!" I exclaimed.She cringed. This was going to be difficult. Maybe Mickey would goshopping with us.Mickey! She had no idea I even had a new little sister."Okay, Sally. I'm going to call Mickey. Remember, I told you how my bestfriend called me Aly-x. That's Mickey. You'll like her. She does funnyvoices."Once again leading Sally by the hand, I used the phone in the kitchen totell Mickey everything."Let's go over to Wal-Mart. Meet you there in a few minutes?" Shesuggested."Wait, all she has is a sundress and too-small sandals. Does your brotherhave any old clothes and shoes we could put her in?""I'll check. Then I'll come over. Do you have a bike she'll be able toride?""Yeah, my old one. I doubt she can ride very well, so I might as well putthe training wheels back on.""Will do. I'll be over soon!"Sally followed me into the garage like a lost puppy.She helped me drag my old bike out onto the driveway, where she was able toplay with the handlebar streamers as I attached the training wheels."There you go, Miss Sally." I announced when I finished.She was staring at a rapidly approaching figure. Mickey."Aly-x! Is this, what was her name, Sally?""She isn't going to stay Sally though. Don't you agree that can't be herreal name?""Of course. What names have you thought of?""I actually can't quite find one that fits her.""Have you introduced her to your mom? I mean, isn't that why Roger adoptedher?""Damn! I completely forgot!""That's okay. We'll get her a nice outfit and take her in to your mother.Meanwhile, here's some shorts and a shirt from my brother's old stuff.""It's quite wrinkled, and looks like it might be too big.""Hey," she yelped defensively, "It was clean, unlike most of the stuff heowns.""Okay, okay. Let's go get her dressed."We managed to keep Sally in the clothes until we got to the store, where weput her in the first outfit we could get out hands on."She looks cute!" "Perfect!" "You like it? Good, you'd better." "Oooh,ooh, how about this one?"Mickey and I danced through the clothing department, shouting comments ateach other from rack to fully-stocked rack.Looking for something for her presentation to my mother, a red top andleopard print skirt caught my eye.Perfect. I whirled to show it to Sally.Her eyes widened as she took in the shirt's vibrant tone. With a cry, shedove into the center of a circular rack and huddled there."Mickey!" I called, "I think it's time to go! You don't have anything redchosen, do you?""A couple of things. Why?""I think she's scared of that color.""Why would she be scared of red...? Oh. I see.""What? Why do you think she doesn't like it? Do you think it's justsomething she can't stand? Like I can't stand ballet pink?""You don't run and hide when you see someone with pink. Think, what elseis red that people don't like?""Apples. You don't like red apples. No, I know that's not it, so don'tmake faces at me. Um, I'm thinking too hard. My mind's blanking out on mehere.""Blood! If she was adopted, that means her parents might be dead. How dowe know they weren't brutally murdered and she saw their bloody bodies?""I saw Renea's body after she was shot and beaten until she was barelyrecognizable." My voice was hard and expressionless."I'm sorry. But you're older than her. You are braver, you have morecourage, you can withstand almost anything. She can't. All I'm saying, ismaybe she saw something bloody and now she's scared of it.""You're assuming too much.""Don't you agree it's possible though?""Anything is possible.""I agree. Pigs could fly. But they would have to lose a lot of weight,develop strong large wings, and have better legs for pushing off andlanding.""Don't start on the pigs again.""May I finish?""Just explain why you brought the pigs in this time.""Okay, I'm just saying, my scenario was possible, without all these thingshaving to be adjusted like the flying piggly-wigglies."We coaxed Sally out of the store without any red clothing and manages toget her home in one piece."You want me to stay while you take her up to your mother?" Mickeyoffered, relaxed hands spread wide."No thanks. I'll be fine. Thanks for offering. Come over for breakfasttomorrow though. We'll have a celebratory end-of-school, start-of-summer,Ombenevning-av-Sally, you-get-the-idea breakfast.""As we instant message freaks would say: LOL!!" She laughed-out-loud tosuit her abbreviation."IM me tonight. I'll probably try to get her to bed around eight, so we'lltry for sometime shortly after that?""Okay. Talk to you then!"She sped off and I whisked Sally into the house.Sitting her down on her bed, I cleared my throat softly, "Remember how Isaid we were going to find a perfect name for you?"She cocked her head to the left quickly and jerked it back.Interesting, I noted. "Well, tomorrow morning Mickey and I are going tohave a Ombenevning. That's Renaming in Norwegian, you know."She jerked her head to the left again."Okay, since you arrived, I haven't heard you say a single word. TheOmbenevning required you to accept the title by saying ja eller ingen.That means yes or no. We're going to have to devise a way for you to sayja without your silence preventing you."Little head cocky thingy."Is that yes?"Head jerk."Is your name really Sally?" My voice stumbled with excitement.She dropped her chin to her chest and rolled it up to her right shoulder."Does my friend Mickey call me Aly-x? Ja eller ingen?"Her head jerked in the first motion.Ahh, progress. The head jerk was ja and the roll was ingen.Fremadskridende! Fremadskridende!I grabbed a coffee mug from the table and demanded, "What's this?"She jerked her head to the left, then rolled it to her right.Progress! I snatched a pen from the table, "And this?"She repeated the combination of yes and no. Probably meaning I don't knowor don't know how to say."Give me your hands," I ordered.She obediently held out her limp hands. I shaped her fingers so that allwere down except her index finger and thumb, which made an L.I described the letter, "L is for love."Then I molded her fingers so that the pinky and thumb stuck out of thefist, "Y is for you."I repeated the L "The second L is for like."Two more letters. I folded her hand into a fist with the thumb on theside, "A is for a."The fist with the thumb in front, "S is for sister."I spelled out the letters with my own hands, saying the word as I wentalong, "Love you like a sister."She copied my hands, spelling LYLAS on her own."That's going to be your new name, okay? Not Sally anymore. Now you willbe Mickey's and my Lylas."I took her to her room and helped her get ready for bed. When she wassnuggly tucked in, I kissed her lightly on the forehead.Crossing my fists across my chest, I whispered, "Love." Pointed to her Iadded, "You."MondayThe next day was Monday and my father left early to go somewhere, I supposeto work.Mickey arrived around eight carrying a container of blueberries, a box ofdonuts, and a 500 page notebook, under her arm.'"Oh god god, fremadskridende!" I grinned.Before Mickey got there, I had explained the Ombenevning to Sally (soon-to-be-Lylas) in English. I figured she might not be able to follow the wordsin Norwegian."We will do all the talking. Normally the person says that they accept thename, but you can just do your head thing. Anyway, the ceremony, rememberit's called an Ombenevning, or Renaming, will be saying:"We, the crazed and wild, give you the name of Lylas for the rest of yourlife as one of our being, and for eternity. You, Lylas, accept? Yes orno? (This is where you say yes.) Oh good good, onward to celebration."Make sense?"She jerked yes.When Mickey arrived, we were ready. I smeared blueberry juices downLylas's nose. She wrinkled her nose up and down like a rabbit when wasdone, causing Mickey to snort with laughter and mess up her own nose.Once we all had our nose stripes, we helped Lylas smear a little bit ofjuice on each of her eyelids before we did ourselves.Finally, we placed a whole blueberry under each of our tongues. It took afew tries to keep Lylas (formerly Sally) from eating them.When we were ready, Mickey and I chanted in unison:"Gir vi, det gale og ville, De det navnet av Lylas for resten av Deres livsom en av vår væring, og for evighet. De, Lylas, aksepterer? Ja elleringen?"Mickey grew puzzled at Lylas's silence, but I smiled when she cocked herhead, "That means yes," I whispered to Mickey.We chanted the closing line:"Oh god god, fremadskridende til fest."Clapping and screaming like mountain lions, we swallowed our blueberriesand began the "party." I grabbed three cans of whipped cream from thefridge and started the traditional whipped cream fight.Mickey mixed root beer and pink lemonade powder with peanut butter andchopped blueberries for her famous Mickey Mouse's Suicide Concoction,another tradition.In the end, it all came down to this: we made a mess.As we were cleaning up, Mickey asked, "So what'd your mom think?""Um, I didn't get a chance to introduce her. I was busy coming up with thename, and finding out how she says yes and no.""Are you going to keep putting it off? She has to know sometime.""Yeah, I know.""Why don't you wash up Lylas, put her in one of those outfits, and take herup right now? I'll finish cleaning. Or I can go up with you.""Okay. You come pick out an outfit with me."We chose a dark green dress and tied Lylas' hair back with a matchingribbon.Mickey escorted me up to my mom's room, then waited at the door as I wentin."Mom?" My voice was barely above a whisper, "Mom, there's someone I wantyou to meet.""Renea?" She turned towards me, her eyes red and glassy."No, Mom, it's me. Alyxsa. I want you to meet Lylas." I pushed herforward."Alyxsa?""Yes, Mom. And this little girl is named Lylas. Mickey and I picked itout.""Mickey?""Remember Mickey, Mom? My best friend? You used to take us to the icecream parlor together.""Who's this?""This is Lylas. Roger adopted her. Yesterday.""Roger?""Roger is your husband! Mom, look at me! I came in here to show youLylas. This is your new daughter!" I hated her for her refusal to acceptRenea's death. I hated coming to see her because she never knew whomanyone was."My daughter? Renea?""No, Mom. This is Lylas. Renea is DEAD! She is not coming back!"I grabbed Lylas by the hand and stormed out, slamming the door loudlybehind me."I take it that didn't go well?" Mickey was leaning against the wall,holding a picture of Renea."No, it didn't. Why can't she get over it like the rest of us? She is soobsessed over her little girl. What about me? Wasn't I ever her littlegirl? What about Roger? He loved Renea too, he loved Mom.""Of course you were her little girl. But you didn't die. You grew up.You aren't her baby anymore. Renea was." She held up the picture of mysister, "Anyways, I was thinking maybe we could tell Lylas about her."I grabbed the picture and flung it off the side of the upstairs balcony.Below, the glass of the frame shattered."I'm tired of her! Why did have to go and get herself killed?" I pulledanother picture of Renea off the wall and flung it down. I heard thesatisfying sound of breaking glass.As I reached for another, Mickey grabbed hold of my arms. She was strongerthan me. Soon, I stopped struggling and sank to the floor, crying."Why Renea? Why us? Why, Mickey, why?""I don't know, Aly. But the fact is, it was Renea who was murdered. Itwas you and your family who were affected. You can't change the past, butyou can choose how it shapes the future.""She refused, Mickey. She refused to acknowledge Lylas. She kept askingabout other people, but she never even looked at Lylas.""It's okay. Shhh. She'll accept her soon enough--X?"I looked up at her, "What's wrong?""Where is Lylas?""I thought she was right there, next to you.""No, I think she got scared when you threw the picture.""Did she go downstairs?""I don't think so," she looked around, "Wait! You slammed the door, right? How come it's open?"I followed her eyes. The door to my mother's room was open a crack. Inodded to Mickey and we crept to peer in.Lylas had brushed out and was loosely braiding my mom's hair. Every fewseconds, Lylas would pat mom's shoulder, or stroke her hand, or even kissher lightly on the cheek. Mom's eyes were closed, but there was a littlesmile on her dirty pale face.I pulled back, astonished. Mickey plopped down beside me.She spoke first, "Wow.""Yeah. I haven't seen my mom smile in... three months. Since Renea.""I guess Project Lylas is working. It looked like your mom was gettingbetter.""I think so.""Come on. Let's go get some ice cream to celebrate.""No, maybe later. I've got some housework to do."She groaned, "Don't remind me. I've got to clean my room when I go home.""Ooh. Sounds exciting! IM me tonight. Sorry I wasn't on last night. Iwas busy with settling Lylas in.""That's okay. I'll talk to you tonight then."She left and I set about doing my chores. At seven o'clock, I logged ontomy instant messenger. Mickey wasn't on, but her little brother was. GameKing00: Hi Aly DreamBabeX: hi. where's mickey? GameKing00: This is me. My name isn't working. DreamBabeX: really?! okay, prove it to me. GameKing00: You don't believe me? DreamBabeX: no. actually, i dont. DreamBabeX: tell me what we did this morning. GameKing00: we went shopping and i stole some of johnny's clothes. DreamBabeX: that wasn't this morning. that was yesterday. GameKing00: oops. okay i forget what we did. DreamBabeX: Go get your sister.I grabbed the phone off my desk and dialed Mickey's house."Hello, Delacortte residence." Mickey's mom answered politely, as if shehadn't left her office yet today."Hey, this is Aly. Is Mickey there?""Who?"I sighed. Her mother never really understood the whole 'Mickey' nickname,"Is Katherine-Jane there?""Oh, yes. Please hold."I heard her yell for 'Katie-dear'. Mickey picked up a second later."Hey, what's up?""Not much. Just wondering if you knew your brother was on his IMpretending to be you.""Again?""Again.""I'll go kick him off with my super-sista moves.""So why aren't you on?""I'm grounded for the rest of today because I took the blueberries withoutpermission.""Can you get on tomorrow morning?""Sure.""Okay. Go kick some little brother butt. I have to go get the mail.""Okay. Lylas.""Right back atchya."I hung up and checked on Lylas. She was curled up asleep next to my mom.I left her as she was and went outside to my bike. The ride to the postoffice was short, but mostly uphill.I rode hard. Just before I got there, I passed a house surrounded byflashing police lights. Police tape was wrapped around the house andsurrounding area.An officer stopped me on the sidewalk, "We're sorry, but you aren't allowedhere. This is a crime scene. You'll have to ride somewhere else.""I'm just going to the post office." I pointed to the brick building atthe end of the block."Okay. But ride a different was back.""I will."I pedaled quickly away from the scene. I didn't like police. Not sincethey hadn't found Renea's killer.The mail had just arrived, but it was all junk and bills. I stuffed it inmy backpack and rode the long way home.TuesdayI got up early the next morning because I knew Mickey would be up. I wasright. She was already online when I logged into DreamBabeX. MickeyMouseRN: what took you so long? DreamBabeX: hello to you too MickeyMouseRN: it's already seven-thirty. i've been on for hours DreamBabeX: sure u have. MickeyMouseRN: i swear i have DreamBabeX: okay. whatever. MickeyMouseRN: yeah. i was watching the 6 o clock news and i saw this story that was kinda interesting. DreamBabeX: are they going to play it again? MickeyMouseRN: ida no MickeyMouseRN: i'm downloading it from their site tho DreamBabeX: cool. what's it on? MickeyMouseRN: this murder case. they say that two parents were killed and their daughter was kidnapped DreamBabeX: i don't want to see that MickeyMouseRN: wait. there's two reasons i thought of you. MickeyMouseRN: 1. the little girl looks a lot like lylas and 2. the police say the same gun that was used on renea was used on these parent. DreamBabeX: ur kidding! MickeyMouseRN: no, its the same gun. they think its the same guy. DreamBabeX: maybe they'll catch him this time. MickeyMouseRN: yeah. i was thinking that we should tell the police that we think lylas is that little girl. DreamBabeX: no, i don't think so. MickeyMouseRN: why not? you haven't seen the picture. it looks just like her. DreamBabeX: roger adopted her. he didn't kidnap her. MickeyMouseRN: okay. whatever u say. i g2g DreamBabeX: ok. call me and we'll meet for ice cream. MickeyMouseRN: sure. by-by DreamBabeX: LYLAS DreamBabeX: c*ya l8erzI signed off and padded into the kitchen. Lylas was sitting at the table."Hey. You're up early. What do you want for breakfast?"She held up a box of Rice Krispies."Snap, Crackle, and Pop, huh? Sounds yummy. I'll have some too."We ate silently, the Rice Krispies making the only sound in the room.Mickey stomped in just before we finished eating."Hey there, Mouse. You look mad. What's up?""There's a roadblock a few streets over. They think the killer is fromthis area.""Ooh. How exciting!""Yeah right.""Did you bring a CD of that new clip?""Clip? Whoa, I never said clip! The one from CNN is sixteen minutes long. The one from ABC is twelve minutes. Oh, and the one from whatever channel13 is called is seven minutes. There's no clip.""Okay okay. Let's watch."We all filed into my bedroom. Mickey took control of the computer. Isqueezed into the chair with her, half sitting in her lap. Lylas wanderedaround the room, looking at all my junk."Here's the one from channel 13." Mickey brought up the first file fromthe disk.I watched. It was a short story, talking about how this murder could belinked to Renea."That one wasn't too great. But, here's a better one."She played the report from ABC. It was a little more in depth, and itshowed a picture of the little girl. I had to admit, it did look a littlelike Lylas.But it wasn't her. I knew it couldn't be. The idea was impossible.

The author would like to thank you for your continued support. Your review has been posted.